Application of the high performance computing techniques of parflow simulator to model groundwater flow at Azraq basin

Being one of the largest groundwater basins in Jordan, the Azraq basin is considered to be an important domestic and agricultural water source. Lately, there have been growing concerns about the continuous depletion and deterioration in groundwater quality in the basin due to intensive pumping beyond the safe yield of the basin. This is where assessment studies equipped with the proper modeling tools come into the picture. The highly advanced groundwater model, ParFlow, was utilized in this project in order to model groundwater flow in the basin. ParFlow employs the latest numerical techniques along with the massive power of parallel computing to utilize three-dimensional heterogeneity in groundwater flow modeling. This was tested against the homogeneous assumptions employed in more commonly used models such as Processing Modflow. Modeling results were compared to those produced by the PM5 modeling studies conducted by relevant official agencies in Jordan. Furthermore, the calibrated flow model was used to predict the aquifer system's response to a pumpage scheme of 55.5 MCM/year. The results showed that the maximum drawdown predicted by ParFlow was greater than the amount predicted by Modflow for the same pumping scheme. One of the causes of this difference in predictions may be attributed to the fact that ParFlow gives a general, more comprehensive picture of the system at hand, as opposed to the point dependent results obtained via Modflow. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007